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4 in 1 Travel Dress

Description

This summer has been full of vacation with trips to Los Angeles, Florida,Portland, and China. To get ready for all the travel I put together this reversible travel dress inspired by a dress I saw in a catalog. The garment reverses to create two dresses and two skirts. I created this dress using my own pattern.

Helle04 asked for instructions to make the dress. I have posted them in the comments. Scroll down to read them under Helle04’s post**

Brilliant!
I tried something similar before backpacking in Central America earlier this summer but it was a failure due to horrible fitting and the wrong fabrics. Actually mine was just a two coloured reversible dress and not even a skirt.

Du you have any tutorial, instructions, simple drawings or anything else which can be of help for those of us who cannot figure this out? :o)

1 Reply

Try starting with a very simple skirt pattern. The one I used is a simple A-line skirt pattern with a knit waistband. I would also suggest using a light weight knit fabric. I have found that the dress I made takes a long time to dry when hand washing in a hotel room.

1. I started by cutting out the skirt part of the pattern in two stretch knit fabrics. I used 4 way stretch knit. Make sure you pre-was your fabrics first so that they will not shrink after you sew up your dress.

2. Next draw a pattern for the bodice by starting with the measurement of the skirt waistband. Measured how high you want the bodice to be and take your bust measurement at the point on the body you wanted the bodice to sit. Divided the bust and waist measurement in half and created a front and back bodice from the measurements. Cut out two bodices using your two knit fabrics.

3. To fit the bodice first sew only one of the bodices together and try it on for fit. Record any fit adjustments you make so you can make the same adjustments to the second bodice. Sew the second bodice together. Sewed the two bodices together at the top neckline adding a loop for a tie strap at center front. Before turning the bodices right side out I added ¼” elastic around the top bodice edge to stabilize the neckline. Make your elastic 1”-2” smaller than your bust measurement. The elastic prevents the kit from stretching out when wearing it.

4. Turn the bodice right side out and baste lower waistline edge together.

5. Next stitch up the side seams of each of the two skirts. Sandwich the lower edge of the bodice between the right sides of the two skirts. Make sure to match all side and back seams. Add ½ or ¾ “elastic to the skirt waistline to create a waistband to support the weight of the skirt. Again make your elastic 1”-2” smaller than your waistline measurement. Once you turn the skirt right side out the elastic waistband will be hidden.

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